1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a communication terminal apparatus and a communication control method, and more particularly, is suitable for application in World Wide Web (WWW) constructed in the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the Internet has been developed as a global computer network. The Internet is a world-wide network in which computer networks existing in enterprises, universities, and so on in respective countries are connected to each other through wide area lines. A user is allowed to receive a variety of provided Internet services through a computer apparatus. There are a wide variety of existing services including, for example, "electronic mail" for transmitting a message to a particular recipient; "remote computer access" for utilizing a remote computer apparatus; "File Transfer Protocol (FTP)" for transferring resources and receiving provided information; "net news" for providing information on and discussing a variety of themes; "WWW" for providing multimedia information of a hyper link structure in which pages are mutually linked; and so on.
Particularly, in WWW, data is transferred in accordance with a communication connection procedure (hereinafter, this is referred to as "protocol") named Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a home page and so on are displayed on a screen through files written by Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), such that information can be searched and displayed readily on the screen.
The user may use a WWW browser to access a WWW server and receive provided information and services, while information providers provide information and services to the WWW browser using a WWW server.
When the user uses a WWW browser to acquire hyper-linked information, the user first specifies the location of a home page (Uniform Resource Locator (URL)) to be connected, causing a client computer apparatus to request the WWW server having the URL to transfer information. The WWW server, upon receiving the request, transfer an HTML file of the specified home page to the client computer apparatus.
The client computer apparatus analyzes the HTML file to display displayable portions on a display, and issues another transfer request if the HTML file contains other data (for example, image information) embedded therein. Also, when certain information, displayed by the client computer apparatus, includes related information provided therefor, the information is displayed in a different color or is underscored. On the HTML file, URL indicative of the location of the related information is embedded.
When the user clicks on a different color portion (or an underscored portion), the client computer apparatus issues a transfer request to a WWW server that has the information, so that the WWW server, receiving the transfer request, transfers an HTML file of a specified new page. In this way, linked file information is sequentially provided as the user repeats clicking manipulations in a sequential manner.
The HTML file is intended to describe the structure of a text, and includes the actual contents of the text and a tag (attribute information). A tag is represented by a portion enclosed in between "&lt;" and "&gt;", and is used to represent, for example, an element of a text, a structure, a shaping method, a linked destination, and so on. Actually, an &lt;HTML&gt; tag is used to represent that a text file is described by an HTML file, and an &lt;A&gt; tag is used to represent a linked destination.
Also, in WWW, a file (home page) residing on the Internet is specified through URL, wherein the URL used in this event is made up of a scheme (data structure) name, a domain name (host name), and a file name for specifying a transfer protocol name, a WWW server, and a file name, respectively. For example, when URL is sony.co.jp/, the scheme name, the domain name, and the file name are http, www.sony.co.jp, and /sonydrive/index.html, respectively.
While an access to an actual WWW server is accomplished with an Internet Protocol (IP) address, the IP address is recognized from the domain name. Specifically, there is Domain Name Server (DNS) as a server for acquiring an IP address from a domain name, such that a WWW browser queries the DNS to recognize an IP address.
Also, a linked destination is represented by a &lt;A&gt; tag in an HTML file constituting a home page, such that the user can readily acquire other related home pages from a certain home page. For example, when "&lt;A HREF=" sony.co.jp/"&gt;Go back to Main Menu &lt;/A&gt;" is described in a certain HTML file, a WWW browser displays "Go back to Main Menu" on the screen.
Here, HREF="sony.co.jp/" within the &lt;A&gt; tag in this HTML file represents that the URL of a linked destination is "sony.co.jp/". Also, in the HTML file, a &lt;/A&gt; tag is an end tag of the &lt;A&gt; tag, and a text between the &lt;A&gt; tag and the &lt;/A&gt; tag (here, "Go back to Main Menu") is displayed with highlight (most brightly) or with an underscore in order to indicate that a link is held there.
When the user clicks on a displayed portion "Go back to Main Menu" displayed by the WWW browser on the screen, the client computer apparatus requests a WWW server for a linked destination described in the &lt;A&gt; tag or an HTML file represented by the URL "sony.co.jp/". The WWW server searches for the HTML file that has been assigned the domain name in this URL, and transmits the HTML file to the WWW browser. The WWW browser receives the HTML file transmitted thereto from the WWW server, and analyzes the contents of the HTML file to display the same on the screen.
When a linked destination is corresponded to a predetermined portion within a home page displayed in the foregoing manner using an &lt;A&gt; tag (hyper link structure), corresponding home pages can be sequentially provided by clicking on the predetermined displayed portion in a manner similar to the above-mentioned case.
When the user attempts to transmit some opinion, impression, or the like to creators of a home page as an electronic mail after viewing the home page displayed on the screen of the client computer apparatus, the user may click on an anchor (an entrance to another text) provided in a lower portion of the home page to start electronic mail software which automatically displays a mail input screen for transmission, so that the user can readily input a message to the creator for transmission.
Home pages displayed by information providers such as enterprises often present only outlines, with a telephone number or a facsimile number additionally displayed for users who want to know more detailed contents so that inquiries from the users are accepted. Currently, however, when a home page creator describes a linked destination in an HTML file with URL, the linked destination can be described or specified only with a transfer protocol such as http, ftp, or the like, so that it is not possible to describe as a linked destination a communication device such as a telephone, a facsimile (hereinafter referred to as the "FAX") apparatus, or the like which can be communicated with a particular protocol.
For this reason, the user, who has opened a home page, must once confirm a telephone number or a FAX number of a reference displayed on the home page on the screen and then take the trouble to place a call or transmit FAX information. In addition to such a troublesome procedure to be taken, the user may call a wrong line number, thus suffering from a poor operability.
Also, when the user places a call to a reference out of a range of business hours, nobody will respond to the call while ringer sound of the telephone is generated so many times, resulting in making the user annoyed.
Also, in the client computer apparatus, an anchor placed in a lower portion of a home page must be clicked in order to transmit a message to the creator of a home page, so that the location of the displayed anchor must be found while scrolling the screen, thus presenting a problem that time and labor are required.